Connectivity

Abstract

Applied to the social world, connectivity means links between actors and between actors and various media. The medium of connection could be trade or movements of capital, human media in the shape of travelers, or digital technologies that enable instantaneous connection and interaction, beggaring the constraints of place and time. But any form of exchange or communication between actors is also a form of connectivity. That said, much of the academic literature on connectivity from cultural and communication studies, as well as some research on globalization, focuses on communicative connectivity. This focus embraces communication between agents who are co-present in the same physical space and various types of mediated communication that permit interactions not reliant on co-presence (Giddens 1990).